Prompt #3: Smoke

Summary: No matter when it is, he always smelled like smoke.

The sunlight flowed into Lucy's apartment where she spelt peacefully. Her eyes twitched at the light source, causing her to wake up earlier than she wanted. Lucy yawned and turned over in her bed. She was gracefully met with a hard chest and strong arms that wrapped around her.

Lucy struggled, trying to get out of her new predicament. This has never happened before. Should she try to wake him up? No, she didn't want to see his reaction to this. She settled on pushing him in the chest firmly, hoping she wouldn't wake him up. He just pulled her tighter against him.

Thats when he noticed. When her face was pressed tightly against him, she noticed how he smelled. It was like smoke, coming off a fire. Which, if you thought about it a different way, it was since Natsu was a Fire Mage and they had just finished a mission last night.

Lucy gave up on getting away from her partner and settled herself against him. She cuddled into him, finding that it was the only way to be confortable when pressed against someone. She sighed contently and closed her eyes, ready to fall asleep again.

If she had kept them open, then she would have noticed a huge grin and oynx eyes staring at her.

A week later, and with no mention of the cuddling that happened, Lucy got her second whiff of Natsu. They were in the guild, seeing if there was a mission that they liked. Unfortunately, there hadn't been, so Natsu took up fighting with Gray.

How did this lead to her getting a whiff of Natsu? Simple. Gray felt the need to punch Natsu straight in the face, causing him to fall backwards. She just so happened to be walking past the dangerous fight in order to ask Levy a question.

Now, here she was on the ground with one pink haired Dragon Slayer on top of her.

"Whoops. Sorry Luce!" He said, quickly getting off of her and restarting the fight. However, it was too late and Natsu's aroma found its way into her nose. Smoke. He smelt like smoke again. She guessed it was because he was hitting Gray with some fire attacks.

Later that day, it happened again. Lucy was able to smell Natsu's scent once again. They were heading to the location of the request they had decided on. Sadly for Natsu, it was too far to walk and they had to get onto a train to get there.

As soon as Natsu was on the train, he was down for the count, groaning. Lucy took her seat and pulled out a book, getting confortable in her seat.

"Luce... Ugh... Can you...you open the...window?" Natsu asked, almost barfing. Lucy nodded and quickly did so. "Thanks." He mumbled. Natsu climbed to his feet and hung himself out the window. The wind did nothing but blow his scent toward her, and she smelt smoke. It was always smoke.

She quite enjoyed his scent of smoke.

Later into the job found them fighting a powerful enemy. The Mage managed to semi-knock Natsu out, and then headed toward Lucy. The Mage towered over her easily and she found herself shaking. The Mage smirked before stabbing her in the stomach with a sword. A roar closely followed.

Natsu saw what had happened and was beyond angry. He easily beat the shit out of the Mage and quickly made his way to Lucy. "Luce. Lucy! Are you okay? Answer me!" He said angrily, pulling her closely. Lucy coughed into him, slowly arising. Taking a deep breath, she found that the smokey scent of Natsu filled the air around her.

It soothed her.

Lucy healed quickly and found herself back at the guild two weeks later. Natsu was no where near her, but Gray was. She glanced at the Ice Mage, wondering if his scent would make her feel the same way as Natsu's. The Ice Mage saw her watching him and raised an eyebrow at her.

"Something wrong, Lucy?" Gray asked. Lucy bit her lip and shook her head. "There's obviously something wrong! Spit it out!" Gray pressured her with narrowed eyes.

"It's just, lately I've..." Lucy trailed off, not sure how to say it without making him laugh.

"What? I promise I won't laugh." Gray offered. Lucy looked at him gratefully.

"Lately, I've been finding the smell of Natsu was soothing. I was wondering if I felt the same with you or if it was different." Lucy mumbled quietly.

Gray turned red in the face, trying not to laugh. After a full minute of trying to force it back, Gray finally busted out laughing.

"you said you wouldn't laugh!" Lucy shouted, pointing an accusing finger at him.

"I'm... Im sorry. It's just that I think I know why you feel that way." Gray said through his laughter. "But, if you want to try first, go ahead!" Gray said, opening his arms up for a hug. Lucy dived into the hug, shoving her head into Gray's chest to smell him.

It didn't have the same effect. Gray smelt like fresh snow. She liked Natsu's smokey smell better.

At that exact moment, Natsu came into the guild. He saw the girl he loved hugging his friend/rival (who knew he liked Lucy) hugging each other. Natsu lost it, shoving himself between the pair. Gray stared in shock at Natsu while Lucy smiled softly.

"What do you think you're doing?" Natsu asked Gray angrily. Gray held up his hands in surrender, not wanting to fight Natsu as the way he was now.

"Lucy wanted to check something. I hope she found it." Gray said, turning and walking away.

Natsu turned toward the blonde with a questioning look, only to receive a hug from her. She took a deep breath of his smokey scent and sighed happily.

"Yup. I definitely like your smell better." Lucy mumbled into a very confused Fire Dragon Slayer's chest.

She loved how his scent of smoke never changed, no matter what was happening.